Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

We are fortunate to live quite close to major event arenas and such. We were luckily notified about about one of the largest cat shows in country just a few miles away. Bengals in the cages. Maine Coon, Abyssinian and Persian, beautiful animals.

It is fall in North Georgia. Quite pleasent. The front yard. Our cats are quite the entertainers. Here they are with one of the neighbors.

I made chili for a neighborhood event this weekend. My award winning chili did not win or even get an honorable mention. That didn't keep everyone from "woofing" it down though that is for sure. I made it on the weber charcoal grill with mesquite wood for some nice smokiness. I also participated in our first church Saturday morning Men's breakfast. There was a good turnout. We are "amping" the event up now as the new monthly event, advertising and evaluating guest speakers. It was nice to see the neighbors and enjoy our neighborhood clubhouse on the lake. I call it our "Redneck Country Club". It is a great perk in the neighborhood. Any evening in the warm weather you can go down there to socialize and enjoy our private park (and beach) on the lake. We were laughing and comparing stories about the early days of the pandemic. One person interjected "We weren't laughing then". And no we weren't. It was scary. It was interesting r...

Fall is definately upon us in North Georgia. We have been burning leaves and brush. There is an unlimited supply in the jungle here.. every year. I have been doing more with the cooking hobby lately. I made a nice beef roast on the charcoal weber grill... and I got to use my new commercial slicer. The slicer was definately an indulgence, but a better indulgence than the mid 90s defender I was looking to buy. It was a police vehicle in Ghana, West Africa. I am glad I got talked out of it. I have too many projects already. The guest bath is almost done. I think I have been saying that for at least 6 months. It looks like we are going to be in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade again in NYC. We will be banner carriers again. We said we weren't going to do it again, but here we go planning some cool vacation travel beforehand. I put some old gas in the lawn mower by mistake. It ran, but it caused the intake valve to stick open. That ruined the Saturday afternoon time budget. But...

One of the best things you can do (for the sake of humanity) when talking to someone is to say "keep going, tell me more".

Angie was up in DC. We cancelled the Labor day trip to NY. Gasoline expense was one of the reasons. Although gas price is below 3 dollars a gallon in Duluth GA. It is considerablely more expensive elsewhere in the country. There was a lot of anti-Russian symbology (and nastiness) in DC. (it is DC-- symbols are reality there). Somehow it is OK to be a bigot when your friends agree with you. I miss cordiality in politics. Hopefully, the trend will stop or reverse. It can get a lot worse. I am sure.

Angie and I went for a canoe outing. We went to Sweetwater Creek Park near Atlanta. We stayed in a Yurt. I am thinking of getting a yurt for the farm property. Whats a better way to learn about yurts than staying in one. It was fun and different and close to home.